Brandon Brooks: Season-opening win was great, but ...

Veteran guard says Eagles must continue to improve

You can always say that there are things you did well and things that you can always do better — the same thing goes as a unit. We didn’t run the ball the way we wanted to, and that’s one thing we definitely have to pick up, especially going into this week. I thought we did a good job overall protecting [Carson Wentz], especially in our first game when teams really keep a lot of things vanilla.

There will be two or three things that you haven’t seen, but overall, we did a pretty good job protecting [Wentz].

ABOUT 'STANDING GUARD'

Each week during the NFL season, Eagles offensive lineman Brandon Brooks will sit down and speak with PhillyVoice contributor Joseph Santoliquito about the previous week’s game, their upcoming matchup and whatever happens to be on his mind.

I try to grade myself hard and go from there, but I thought I protected well and used my hands well. I did some good things in the running game, but in the running game, I need to get on my land marks better. In pass protection, I can do better in passing off things. Those are what I look at and take away from the game.

Looking ahead to Kansas City:

You have Chris Jones, Bennie Logan and Allen Bailey, so you have those guys [in the Chiefs’ 3-4 defensive front] inside, and obviously [Pro Bowl linebacker] Justin Houston. Guys like that. They have a great defensive front seven, and a great defense overall, so it will be a big challenge for us this week. I’m looking forward to it.

They rush the passer well and they work well together setting up games, and things like that. They run stunts, they run games, they run a jam front with five guys on the line, forcing us to block one-on-one. I’ll be matched with Chris Jones and Bailey, so between those two guys, it’s like something every week that I look forward to the challenge.

What’s on my mind?

Coming off the win, snapping that losing streak we had up there [against Washington] and getting the ‘W’ in their house. But we have to put it behind us and keep our focus and get ready for this week. Once again, we did some things well, like passing the ball all over the field, but the run game has to pick up.

"One thing that I would also like to mention is Nelson Agholor. It was a hell of a game by him. I know he had some ups and downs early on in his career, but he’s really been putting the work in during the offseason, and it showed up big in OTAs."

Going forward, that’s still on my mind. We still have to get better at that from week-to-week.

On what it meant to coach Doug Pederson and the victory in Washington:

He preached getting off to a fast start, and we didn’t always have the fastest starts last year. We got off to a fast start in this game.

One thing that I would also like to mention is Nelson Agholor. It was a hell of a game by him. I know he had some ups and downs early on in his career, but he’s really been putting the work in during the offseason, and it showed up big in OTAs. You can see his confidence steadily growing and you can see him making plays. I was extremely happy for the kid to get out this year, through all of the adversity that he’s faced and in the first game came up big. I know that throughout the year he’ll continue that trend and he’ll have a big year this year.

On Houston and J.J. Watt getting through Hurricane Harvey:

J.J. is a great guy and I’ve known him for some time, prior to football. We grew up 30 minutes away from each other [in Wisconsin]. He always has had a big heart when it’s come to things like [raising money for charities]. You really get to see the power and the impact of sports. Him not just worrying about himself or his play on the field, but using who is and what he has done to bring awareness to a relief fund.

As far as some of the people down in Houston, I spoke to some of the guys I know down there on the team and friends down there to make sure everything was okay. Some people had some water in their house, but by now, everyone is safe and taken care of.

In addition to reading Brandon's comments, each week we'll post audio of the full interview so you'll have a chance to hear to Brandon's words in his own voice.